{UpTown Swirl...She's Been Living In Her Uptown World}

Shopping, drinking wine while you walk the streets of downtown Brenham, & spending an evening with great friends...doesn't get much better than that!  This past weekend, some friends & I went to the "Uptown Swirl"  & we had a blast!  You walk from store to store and sample a variety wines.  There were about 25 stops, 50+ wines and even live music.  We had quite a large group this year & despite the fact that not everyone knew each other when we started out, by the end - everyone had bonded & we had a fabulous time!  The weather was perfect & we ended the night with margaritas at Los Cabos!

  

Check out our photo bomber...yep, same guy photo bombed our 2 group pics.  Don't ask me how he ended up being in the same place we were both times...these pics were taken on 2 totally different streets, about 2 hours apart.

 

I am already looking forward to next year!  Have a great weekend!!

{Holiday Recap...Better Late Than Never!}

November & December are my absolute favorite months of the year!  I love every single thing about the holiday season...the lights, the decorations, the colder weather, attending & hosting parties.  Unfortunately, because it's also one of the busiest times of the year, it seems to go by super fast.  Thanksgiving is over, Christmas is over, & New Years is over.  It's January 11th already...how did that happen?!?  Here is a quick recap of my holiday season!

Because of the new house, unfortunately there was no trip to NYC this year.  Don't get me wrong, the house is FABULOUS & I LOVE it....but I sure missed boarding a plane, riding the subway, shopping on 5th Avenue, & seeing the Rockefeller tree.  This year for sure!!

December began with back to back Blue Bell Christmas parties.  Good times with great friends for sure; I definitely have been blessed with great coworkers!

 

I was finally able to break in the new kitchen & do a little holiday baking for some friends & neighbors. It was a lot of work & my kitchen looked like a tornado hit it, but it all turned out pretty darn good if I do say so myself.  {except the divinity...it tasted good, but you needed a spoon to eat it}

 

I celebrated Christmas with family on Christmas day at my Grandma's & then I hosted a New Year's Eve party at my house for family & friends.  I think at one point, there was about 30 adults & kids there.  Because it was cold & then rainy later in the night, we had to stay in the house, on the deck or in the garage.  Needless to say, my house got broken in really well & I loved every second of it. =)  Toys can be picked up, dishes can be washed and floors can be swept & mopped.  At one point, there were 5 kids in my bed watching Frozen, a pitch game going on in the garage, and beer being drank & marshmallows being roasted on the deck by the chiminea.  I was afraid everyone would be bored & want to go home by 9:00...but the last guests left at 1:45am!  I am just glad that people felt comfortable making themselves at home.  That's what I want.  Hosting more parties & having friends/family over more is one of my goals in 2015.

This past weekend, the tree & all the decorations came down & it was a very sad day.  My house looks so blah now.  It hit me that my house has been decorated for the holidays ever since I moved in...first Fall & then Christmas.  So now, I have no clue what to put on my fireplace mantel or on my coffee table.  I am seeing a shopping trip in the very near future. =) 

2014 was a pretty darn good year.  Construction on my house began in March & I closed on it in August.  That whole process definitely had it's ups & downs, but it was so worth it in the end.  I absolutely love it & I couldn't ask for better neighbors.  In fact, we had our first "Ralston Creek Ladies' Night" this past Friday night.  It started out at 6:00 with dinner & drinks at Los Cabos & then ended with wine at my house til after midnight.  There was talk of future ladies' night & forming a bunco group...can't wait!!

So far, 2015 has started off kinda rough for several friends and I am hoping & praying it gets better for each & every one of them. One thing for sure, everything they are going through has given me a new perspective.  Life is good...there is no point in sweating the small stuff.   
I do have lots of fun & exciting things happening this year that I am looking forward to...and good thing because now that I am finished with the house, I wasn't sure what I was going to blog about! =)

{Christmas Home Tour}

Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year so I want to enjoy it as long as possible.  So yes, I am one of those crazy people that decorates the first or second weekend in November.  I don't host Thanksgiving at my house so I figure why not?!?  Decorating this year was even more fun since it was the first time to decorate my new house.  I try to change things up a little & have a new color "theme" each year so this year I went with white, silver & red {I was inspired by the tree in our hotel lobby in NYC in 2012...it was decorated in all white & was beautiful}.  I also accented with fresh cedar & pine cones and love how it turned out!  I think next year will involve way more fresh greenery {maybe even a real tree?!?} & plaids...I am loving the "cozy", rustic look these days.

Welcome to my house!

I did decorate a little in each room, but my main focus is the living room/kitchen/breakfast room area.  

 

{I get asked the most about the JOY sign...it came from Target for $19.99!}

 

This lantern was my one splurge this year...it came from the Pottery Barn Outlet & I LOVE it!  I can't wait to decorate with it throughout the year.

 Everyone needs a small bar area for holiday entertaining! =)

In addition to the tree in the living room, I put up a small tree in my office/guest room with all of my glass ornaments on it. Each ornament represents either a special event in my life or a place I have traveled to.    It's makes for fun memories!

 

 

That concludes the Christmas tour!  If you would like to see the rest of my house, I did a full house tour here last week.  Thanks for stopping by!

Merry Christmas!

{Thrift Store Dresser: Before & After}

Before moving into my new house, I spent LOTS of time cruising Pinterest & one thing I fell in love with was repurposing a dresser & using it in the living room for my TV/entertainment center.  Of course, everyone else must have been cruising Pinterest & had the same idea as well because finding a dresser was NOT EASY! I searched garage sales & Craigslist for months without any luck.   I wanted one that had "feet" so that it didn't "look" like a dresser.  And the ones I did find that I liked cost a fortune.  One day while looking on Craigslist, I came across an advertisement for a thrift store in Caldwell & the dresser they had pictured in their ad was perfect!  I figured it was most likely sold but I gave them a call & sure enough - they still had it!  I went over that weekend & knew immediately it was the one!  It was slightly more than I wanted to pay, but quite honestly - I was tired of looking so I decided to go ahead & buy it.  A short while later, it was in the back of my Tahoe & going home with me. 

It sat in storage for a while & a few weeks before moving into the house, I decided it was time to get started.  I had used chalk paint when I redid my bed & loved it so I knew I wanted to use it again on this project{I used Annie Sloan Graphite}.  The top finish of the dresser had quite a bit of damage so I had to do a lot of sanding before I painted it.  My original plan was to replace the hardware, but after a little buffing - I loved how it looked so it stayed!

I absolutely LOVE how it turned out!  An added bonus is all the storage the drawers offer.  I love to decorate, but generally am not a DIY person.  But this was a pretty simple project...if I can do it - anyone can! =)

Here's the before & after!

 

 

I am linking up with Thrifty Decor Chick!